At this weeks Debconf in Spain the Debian Project announced a development freeze in December of every odd year with future releases scheduled for the first half of each even year.

The 2 year period will begin in 2009, despite the release of Debian 5.0 Lenny on Feb.14. This exception will enable the project to slip smoothly into the two year rhythm. Consequently, Debian 6.0 will freeze this December and become available in the first half year of 2010.

The new release plan was announced by Meike Reichle, a Debian developer working at the informatics institute of the University of Hildesheim in Germany, on the Debian mailing list. She also writes that companies and organizations who find the 2010 squeeze since Lenny 2009 too quick, the project will enable a skip from version 5.0 to Debian 7.0 upon its release.